


Recollections of the Past

by thewispsoftime



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 05:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4613775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewispsoftime/pseuds/thewispsoftime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sort of follow-up to my previous fic, a couple months down the line and Toph and Zuko are just having a day together. Things come together and realizations are made. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recollections of the Past

Zuko turned to face Toph, his brow furrowing with intent as he readied his stance. With a slow, deep breath Zuko tensed his muscles and shot out blasts of fire as fast as he could, only moving his muscles in order to strike. Any other movement would give away what he would do next. He knew these wouldn’t start off doing much, Toph’s defenses were always well timed. Before his first strike even landed, there was a pillar of earth ready to block him.

And suddenly that same pillar came rocketing towards him. Without hesitation, Zuko dived out of the way, sweeping out his legs to fire out even more as he moved. To beat Toph was to multitask, to hide actions together. She could only differentiate so much at one time, and Zuko had to use this if he was planning on winning.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, however, the ground shifted from under him. Zuko slipped forward, throwing his body into a roll. As soon as he saw Toph once more, he shot out as powerful a shot as he could.

But it was useless. She had already set up her defenses. Earth entombed Zuko’s feet and hands, keeping him unable to firebend. With a sigh, Zuko hung his head.

“What do you plan on doing with me now?”

Toph laughed, a hearty tone of victory bellowing out, and bended over to match Zuko’s head. “Oh, I’m sure you could guess!”

Zuko looked up, his eyebrow raised. He opened his mouth to question that logic, but before even his own thoughts could solidify, everything paused as Toph reached forward to give him a loving kiss. Suddenly, Zuko’s hands were free, and he reached up to cup Toph’s cheeks as they continued to kiss.

After the initial euphoria faded from the kiss, Toph pulled away with a teasing smirk. Zuko tried to stand, but discovered that his feet were still trapped.

“Hey… Toph? You haven’t released my feet yet.”

“Oh I know!” She replied, neither her face nor tone changing. “You lost, after all. This is your punishment! You gotta say something first, and then I’ll free you.”

Zuko had to say something? Zuko’s mind rushed through what she could possibly be referring to, going over every possibility and trying to fit it with the situation.

“Well?” Toph questioned, crossing her arms with an impatient sort of patience.

“Uh…” Zuko was finding difficulty in figuring out what she specifically wanted to hear. Nothing seemed to fit properly. As his brain stalled, he looked around for some sort of clue, some key to get out of this. No matter what, though, nothing could come to his mind.

“If you don’t say it, I’m not gonna let you out!” Toph teased him, crossing her arms and tapping her feet in quiet impatience.

Zuko looked down and stared at his bindings. Toph was just as powerful as ever, even powerful enough to beat him. Suddenly it hit him, and Zuko cursed himself in his mind. How had he not thought of it earlier, it was so obvious! He smiled knowingly before clearly saying,

“You won, Toph. You’re better than me at bending.”

“Huh?” Toph’s composure shattered for a second, apparently assuming that he would never stoop down to that level of humility. After a second, his sentence fully registered in Toph’s brain, and she uncrossed her arms.

“Oh… Yeah. That’s right!” Toph smirked again, pressing her foot down and releasing Zuko’s bonds. Zuko stood up slowly and softly stroked Toph’s cheek as he turned her face towards his. A wave of happiness flew through Zuko’s body once more, but this one was more peaceful, allowing Zuko to enjoy for longer.

When they both pulled away, Toph looked away. Something about her was distressed, and she started to rub her knuckles to calm herself down. Zuko, noticing this odd behavior, pulled his arm around Toph’s shoulders.

“What is it, Toph?”

“Well… I’ve been thinking. I never really knew why you and Mai broke up. I mean, you guys seemed happy together. And when I wanted to ask you out a couple months back, I felt… really guilty about that. Like I wasn’t waiting long enough or something. I don’t know, I thought maybe you’d start to hate me because I asked you out, but you still liked Mai or something.”

Toph’s voice quickly filled with anxiety. She was never comfortable talking about this kind of thing, about being open with herself to anyone. She rarely ever did it, even with Zuko. It showed weakness, an exploit people could use against her.

But she had to share this one. She had thought it over time and time again, and the only way that it was going to go away was if Zuko told her about it. As much as it made her uncomfortable, this was the only way to move forward.

To her surprise, Zuko chuckled.

“I would never hurt someone like that. I could only be with someone I care about, and I wouldn’t allow myself to torture someone by letting them believe I cared about them most of all. I’ve already hurt enough people, I won’t let that be part of my mistakes.”

His voice started to drip with depression, plagued with memories of what he has done in his past.

“But you did care about Mai, right? What happened?” Toph spoke up, her voice still plagued with anxiety. However, with Zuko’s response she started to relax.

“Well, I did care about her, at least at first. And she cared about me. But as time passed, I started to realize something. She only cared about the old me, and whatever bits she could still find of it now.”

“The old you? You mean during the war?”

Zuko nodded with a bereft sigh. “Well, for most of the war at least. It was the me when I still following my father’s commands. The me when I was hunting Aang. I was so filled with anger and hate at everyone and everything. That was the me that she really cared about.”

“And when you changed…” Toph let her voice fade out as Zuko nodded once again.

“Yeah. She didn’t realize it at first just how much I changed. I think she tried to care about the new me, but we just didn’t… fit the same way. Soon enough we started to fight. It was about small stuff at first, but every time it was about the same thing. She expected me to react with anger like I used to over these… small things. I guess, before, I wouldn’t see them as small. It was stuff like people not being formal enough, or those without homes asking for some copper pieces.”

“And she got mad at you over that? That’s ridiculous!” Toph was confused, unable to believe that anyone, even someone like Mai, could think of actions like that as bad.

“Well, not really. She’d mainly get confused, and when I didn’t react like I would have during the war, she would really say anything. But I could tell that she got frustrated. She was from a noble family, after all. Even though she didn’t like that type of life, it was pretty much all she had ever known. I think she was just looking out for me, though. I just didn’t really notice until after she was gone…” Zuko looked away at that point, drawing his arm back.

“She just left?!”

“No… We had a pretty big fight right before she left. She said that she was bored of me, that I wasn’t the type of person she wanted to be in a relationship with. That I had changed and I led her on by staying in the relationship. It hurt a lot to hear those words.”

“That’s... that’s awful. How could she say that!?” Toph kicked the ground, causing a pillar of earth to rise up. With a furious punch, she blasted the pillar off into a nearby cliff, causing everything to shake nearby. From the cliff, there was the sound of a single panicked and confused man.

“Hey. It’s okay. I know now that she only said those things because she was scared and hurt. She had every right to be, suddenly our relationship wasn’t nearly the type of relationship she was expecting it to be. Things didn’t work out because we both wanted different things.”

Toph slowly turned towards Zuko. Her face still distraught and anxious. “Hey… Zuko… Why… why did you ever get in a relationship with me?”

Zuko opened his mouth to respond, but he realized he didn’t have quite the right words. Why did he say yes? Did he just want someone to connect with? Zuko bent his head and let out a soft sigh.

“I… I don’t know.”

Suddenly all of Toph’s anxiety and sadness turned into anger and fury.

“You.... you don’t know?! How could you not know!? Why did you even say yes if you didn’t know why? You… you might not even actually feel anything for me, like Mai!”

Toph started to run away, her emotions taking over and forcing her to find a more secluded and comfortable place than this. She couldn’t take this situation right now, it was just too painful. Zuko called out to her,

“Wait, no! Toph! Let me finish! Please!”

Toph responded by slamming her foot down and trapping Zuko with an earth tent. Zuko pounded on the walls, screaming out,

“Wait! Toph!”

Realizing his shouting wasn’t going to be enough to let Toph turn back, Zuko sunk to his knees.

“I didn’t know then… but I know why I still wanna be with you…” Zuko whispered, tears starting to fall down his face. He slammed the side of the tent again, crying out.

“Damn it! I keep hurting people! When will I stop!?”

Zuko let his arms fall to his sides as his head started to sink, tears dripping softly onto the dirt below.

Suddenly, the tent receded, and Zuko looked up with a heavy heart to see Toph there, with anger held-back in her face. Not only that, but Iroh was also standing over them, with a warm smile. Iroh reached down to offer some support, and Zuko took it as he stood up.

“Uncle… what are you doing here?”

Iroh chuckled heartily, patting his belly.

“Oh I was just over on that cliff over there.” Iroh pointed to the cliff that Toph had shaken with her earlier outburst. “I felt the ground moving so much and looked out to see you two. I had a feeling things weren’t going well, so I walked down and decided to see what I could do to help. Now, Toph? Let’s hear what Zuko wanted to finish before we make any big decision, alright?”

Toph crossed her arms and huffed sharply. “Fine.”

Zuko took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes to push out the tears. “As I said, I don’t know why I initially said yes. I was still partially upset over Mai’s behavior. But… over these last few months, I started to realize why I was willing to get into this relationship. You care about me, the me right now. You always have. You were always defending me when I first tried to join Aang during the war. Even when I burned your feet.”

Toph softened a little bit, but still refused to uncross her arms. “Yeah… I did… But that doesn’t mean you care about me!” She pointed towards Zuko aggressively before crossing her arms again.

Zuko nodded. “That by itself doesn’t. But you were so interesting and enjoyable to be around, I started to realize that I wanted to be around you all the time. You were… well you were like me, in a lot of ways.”

Toph’s breath caught, the anger in her face starting to melt away. “Huh?”

“We were both from noble families that hated us for who we turned out to be. They tried to control us, and change us to what they wanted, but we wouldn’t let them. And even through all they’ve done, I still love my father, and I know you still love your parents. It was so much of… me that I saw in you that was made it all make sense. I care about you because I know you. I know that you have scars but you’re still trying to move forward, to make things better for you and those you care about.”

Toph felt a single tear drip down her cheek as Zuko continued.

“You’ve always done what you can to be a good person and do good for others, even though your mind makes things hard sometimes. It’s that want, that will that I respect so much, and it’s that determination that truly makes me care for you. I want to move forward and help shoulder your problems with you.”

“Why… because you think I can’t deal with them myself?” Toph’s voice attempted to sound angry, but all that came out with a deep sadness.

“No, Toph…” Zuko reached out and softly grabbed Toph’s shoulder. “Because you don’t have to deal with them yourself.”

Toph stood there for several seconds, letting Zuko’s words wash over her as her tears swept down her cheeks. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of thought, Toph punched Zuko in the arm.

“Ow! Hey!” Zuko rubbed his arm softly. “What was that-”

Zuko was interrupted by Toph’s second action, pulling in for yet another, heart-filled kiss. The world swirled around them both as they both knew how important they were to each other.

Finally, after the kiss had passed, and Zuko pulled back, he looked out and wondered out loud,

“Hey, where’s Uncle?”

He finally saw Iroh, slowly walking across the road a while away. Iroh chuckled softly, rubbing his beard.

“Oh young love…”

 

 


End file.
